It's perhaps the best spiritual successor to Dungeon Keeper ever made in that it takes the same ideas without just cloning the original. At $5.99 its worth it just for the biodeck.

ShowMeTheMonkey

04-09-2012, 12:39 PM

Elaborate.

Jams O'Donnell

04-09-2012, 12:39 PM

Zomg, etc! I was complaining about its absence on download services just a couple of hours ago.

Stellar Duck

04-09-2012, 12:51 PM

About time!

vinraith

04-09-2012, 02:11 PM

I always said that the instant this showed up on GOG I'd buy it. So I did.

Anyone know if the MP still works? It doesn't matter that much, it's freaking brilliant in SP as well, but I'm curious as to whether I should be buying copies for all my friends.

mrki

04-09-2012, 02:17 PM

I had so much fun with this, especially in the free build mode. Will buy!

soldant

04-09-2012, 02:18 PM

Fantastic! I loved this game, great to see it out and about again.

Wolfenswan

04-09-2012, 02:19 PM

Elaborate.

You are in charge of a spezz schtation and have to cater to the needs of all the different aliens that decide to settle down, depending on the rooms you've built. Later your claim on the spezz schtation will be contested by AI players which usually results in all out war (imho the weakest part of the game). THere's also the bio deck which adds a minigame of sorts. You have to adjust the biosphere and terrain to get different plants to grow so they can be harvested for food, medicine, luxuries or trade.

I always found the managment aspect of the game to be pleasently challenging but I think I never finished it.

Sparkasaurusmex

04-09-2012, 02:25 PM

Can you name your security chief Odo?

Wolfenswan

04-09-2012, 02:26 PM

Iirc you can name all your aliens.

Or you might not, but they all have unique names and personalities.

Also, there's a tvtropes page for Startopia, just in case you wanted anything to get done today:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Startopia

mrki

04-09-2012, 03:06 PM

Also, there's a tvtropes page for Startopia, just in case you wanted anything to get done today:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Startopia

Ended up clicking on Naughty Tentacles. Result: "Discussion of this topic is currently on hold until we can figure out how to keep the discussion wholesome" :D

JiminyJickers

04-09-2012, 03:13 PM

Huzzah! This is great news.

Cooper

04-09-2012, 05:57 PM

I always said that the instant this showed up on GOG I'd buy it. So I did.Same here. I have the CD somewhere, but I tend to buy the "kind of games I like and would like to see more of" (new or old ones released) from GoG in a proabably futile attempt to instigate change through consumer choice...

Asokn

04-09-2012, 07:29 PM

Good news. Has anyone tried downloading this and playing it on a Samsung NC 10
Netbook? It seems like the sort of game that would run nicely.

MrN

05-09-2012, 06:46 AM

Heh, and I just picked up Theme Hospital and Dungeon Keeper a little while ago. Now I need to grab this game so I can have all the strategy thingies!

Bhazor

05-09-2012, 04:18 PM

Good news. Has anyone tried downloading this and playing it on a Samsung NC 10
Netbook? It seems like the sort of game that would run nicely.

Been playing it all day on my Aspire One netbook. Runs like a dream and still looks dang pretty.
Special mention should go to the "advanced camera controls" which is an optional little dongle seemingly designed for mice with no scroll wheels but which also works brilliantly with a touch pad mouse, which is a piece of hardware that most 3d games seriously struggle with.

Cooper

05-09-2012, 05:07 PM

Good news. Has anyone tried downloading this and playing it on a Samsung NC 10
Netbook? It seems like the sort of game that would run nicely.Add "/r1024x600x32" to the command line to set the resolution to the NC10's native resolution (at least, that's what I think the resolution is. I have one here but not used it for ages.)

Edit: Also, for those not on netbooks, this:
http://home.comcast.net/~tom_forsyth/startopia/startopia.html

Is an old patch that adds pretty shadows to the game as well as the 1.01 patch (I'm not sure if GoG includes this. I'd assume so)

Wolfenswan

05-09-2012, 05:23 PM

If you're new to Startopia I recommend the RTSC Startopia Guide (http://www.rakrent.com/rtsc/html/star01.htm).

Bhazor

05-09-2012, 07:19 PM

@ Cooper

Dat shadow engine.

Asokn

05-09-2012, 08:59 PM

Thanks to those who have answered my netbook query!

Despair Squid

05-09-2012, 09:13 PM

Bought this the instant I heard it was released - One of the few games I've played that is actually genuinely funny.

What I'm not so impressed about is the constant black screen flickering I'm getting, and the fact that the game doesn't want to save my video settings once I get it to stop flickering.

Still though. Startopia!

Bhazor

06-09-2012, 12:09 AM

I get a flickering for the first couple minutes but then it stops. What setting did you change to stop the flickering?
Really not sure about why it refuses to save settings though.

On another tech note my netbook seems to Freeze when I get a desktop prompt or try to Alt-tab out. Anyone had similar things or is it just my puny rig?

Wolfenswan

06-09-2012, 01:22 AM

I get a flickering for the first couple minutes but then it stops. What setting did you change to stop the flickering?

Try disabling VSync.

Despair Squid

06-09-2012, 02:29 AM

Turning VSync to "blit" fixes the flickering for me, although if I have a notification or some other pop-up appear that'll usually causes some flickering for as long as it appears.

Harlander

06-09-2012, 08:30 AM

Grabbed this, and King of Dragon Pass too. Both games I'd been interested in for quite a while.

Is there any way to make the interface bigger if you set the resolution to high? I had to dial it back from native res because squinting at the miniscule text gave me an instant headache.

TechnicalBen

06-09-2012, 08:54 AM

Turning VSync to "blit" fixes the flickering for me, although if I have a notification or some other pop-up appear that'll usually causes some flickering for as long as it appears.

Strange, I actually get that in Kings Bounty games (but only for 15 seconds). It might have to do with the type of buffer in the AMD/ATI cards (assuming you have one here :P).

Drinking with Skeletons

06-09-2012, 03:58 PM

One of the aspects of this game that I think gets too little attention is the campaign. It's the typical strategy game campaign that introduces one or two mechanics per mission, but is atypical because it's genuinely fun. How often can you really say that about strategy campaigns? And the reason it works is that each mechanic--medical bay, security, etc.--is robust enough that it can support a whole mission dedicated almost exclusively to it without the game feeling like it is depriving you of necessary tools.

Oh, and VAL's growing warmth towards you and the game's general good vibes help too. :)

Bobtree

06-09-2012, 04:53 PM

Anyone know if the MP still works?

I tried some VPN play a few years ago (via Hamachi or something equivelant IIRC), and we could get games started but always ran into desynch issues. It always had some networking bugs I think.

It's too bad, because there's something I love about symmetric game designs where the multi and single player are the same game "mode" (at least for Startopia's sp sandbox, not the campaign missions), and not separate designs.

Alex Bakke

06-09-2012, 05:13 PM

Grabbed this, and King of Dragon Pass too. Both games I'd been interested in for quite a while.

Is there any way to make the interface bigger if you set the resolution to high? I had to dial it back from native res because squinting at the miniscule text gave me an instant headache.

KoDP brings me back. We should start up a forum game sometime.

Harlander

06-09-2012, 11:23 PM

You mean like a legacy game like we tried to do in Dwarf Fortress what seems like ages ago?

Also, where the heck have you been, Bakke?

elphaba

07-09-2012, 08:52 PM

I still have the CD for this, I wonder if it works... Does gog change actual code beyond removing the cd check so it runs on modern hardware?

cd version works fine under windows 7. Im playing now more then a week a game wich is unpatched. (version 1.0)

sadly I also remember why I stopped playing. When you setup a couple of decks the game basically plays itself. Until you discover an enemy AI, then its a run to take over his decks.

Carra

08-09-2012, 11:58 PM

I've been wanting to play it for a while but it got off my radar.

Now I'll have to buy it.

Nullkigan

09-09-2012, 12:15 AM

King of Dragon Pass

Is awesome enough to mask the bitterness I have regarding the All Heroes Die devs running off with the money people used to preorder their clone of it.

I believe the way to play it via forum is to have voting on key events. Like the ring in the game, but with more cat macros.

Startopia will go on The Backlog, I suppose. If only to show I quite like space and quite like that style of managemen sim and would rather enjoy seeing more of that sort of thing.

... except the devs are dead and the money basically goes to GOG and into a general brown paper packet of no particular import for whoever currently holds the rights.

GunnerMcCaffrey

09-09-2012, 12:29 AM

RPS has not steered us wrong. The game's fantastic.

Didn't think it worth starting a new thread, but, can any old hands give some guidance? I'm at the point in the campaign where I'm trying to get an economic victory over other administrators, and I just can't keep the bloody peeps happy. The station overview tab suggests people are wanting for food, fun, hygiene, medical care, sleep... meanwhile the berths, bars and sickbays are empty, and while the dine-o-mats look like they're seeing regular use, folk are still generally hungry. There are clearly more nuances here than I'd realized. Any advice on what I should be tweaking?

One of the aspects of this game that I think gets too little attention is the campaign. It's the typical strategy game campaign that introduces one or two mechanics per mission, but is atypical because it's genuinely fun. How often can you really say that about strategy campaigns?

Today, not too often. But more frequently "back in the day," I think. The campaign in the original Starcraft/Brood War was fantastic, and massive - not the perfunctory training simulator of the sequel. Of course, that was back when Blizzard still felt they had to make actual games, not simply cash-removal devices.

archonsod

09-09-2012, 03:03 AM

The station overview tab suggests people are wanting for food, fun, hygiene, medical care, sleep... meanwhile the berths, bars and sickbays are empty, and while the dine-o-mats look like they're seeing regular use, folk are still generally hungry. There are clearly more nuances here than I'd realized. Any advice on what I should be tweaking?

Make sure you have the right stuff for the right people. Sickbays need at least a diagnosis unit and a dispenser; otherwise your doctors are unlikely to be capable of treating anything more serious than a couple of scratches. As with most facilities that require staffing, it pays to have one or two additional staff over what it supports so they work in shifts.
Lavotrons and dine-o-mats are necessary to supply food and hygiene needs. Have plenty of both, well spaced out. Sleep is another matter; pretty much only the salt hogs will be happy with a birth, space inns and space motels are needed to keep everyone else happy (apart from the slugs anyway). Same with bars; Kasvogorians and salt hogs are about the only ones who like the rough bar.

Generally speaking don't increase the price of anything more than a few credits. You're usually better off leaving the price where it is and ensuring the building is supplied with any resources it needs to make more cash. Also note it's not so much the individual traits you need to worry about, it's more the general wellbeing and happiness (the smiley face and ying yang symbol). As long as they're high you can ignore the rest. And don't neglect the biodeck; it provides pretty huge bonuses to fun and entertainment if you have a good biodeck (races tend to prefer their home environments, so a good mix is worthwhile).

GunnerMcCaffrey

09-09-2012, 07:01 AM

OK, that makes sense... didn't know about the different preferences. Cheers.

Wolfenswan

09-09-2012, 12:04 PM

I repeat my recommendation for this guide (http://www.rakrent.com/rtsc/rtsc_startopia.htm).

Also, don't spent too much time on the Biodeck. It's nice and all but it eats time like nothing else and while you're trying to get a nice landscape that makes everyone happy (until the Meteor strikes) the rest of your station descends into chaos.

Personally I find it the most difficult to get a solid economy going at the start. The stardock is too expensive and you have that many goods for trade anyway. The recycler's only gives you so much and what you get from the cultural buildings is mostly peanuts.

Regarding the Multiplayer question someone had earlier I quote the guide:

only network the game on a LAN; don't try and save anything, DON'T hit Pause or even think of touching ESC while you're playing. Avoid Gamespy multiplayer like the plague - and you'll have hours of great fun. Don't worry - its sim management: you can leave it running in the background to answer the phone or go on holidays during a game.

Which means it should work fine with Hamachi or Gameranger.

archonsod

09-09-2012, 01:52 PM

Also, don't spent too much time on the Biodeck. It's nice and all but it eats time like nothing else and while you're trying to get a nice landscape that makes everyone happy (until the Meteor strikes) the rest of your station descends into chaos.

Do it first thing (before you build a port) and that's not a problem. In fact I'd say open as many sections of it you can, terraform it and then start opening the station. Not only does it keep tourists happy for free (invaluable before you have any entertainments), but having a regular supply of free cargo crates does wonders to avoid the economic stall, even if you're just trading with Arona.

GunnerMcCaffrey

09-09-2012, 05:43 PM

I'd agree with you on that, archonsod - I've had great luck with the biodeck. A constant source of black market goods to trade with Arona has definitely kept me solvent more than once. A couple of farmers are always my first hires, and monks too - the occasional cash bonus for conversions is great. I do find it all gets a bit too finnicky, though, if I expand beyond two or three sections.

popej

10-09-2012, 08:59 AM

As some of you have said I enjoyed the management side of this game but the combat was a bit dull. Dungeon Keeper & Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 are more my kind of thing.

dutt

10-09-2012, 01:15 PM

Oh, I remember this one from back in the day. It was loads of fun, except for the combat as has been said.

Anybody tried getting this running in Linux?

elphaba

10-09-2012, 01:28 PM

As some of you have said I enjoyed the management side of this game but the combat was a bit dull. Dungeon Keeper & Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 are more my kind of thing.

There's combat in RCT3? I'll have to look at that again.

Drinking with Skeletons

10-09-2012, 03:42 PM

I agree about getting some farmers and monks right off the bat. In fact, I'd say the monks are more important, since you get a consistent 5000e per convert and it doesn't take many monks to get the ball rolling.

To me the biggest early decision is whether I buy a lab or a stardock from Arona. The lab is the cheaper option in every way, since it will cost less than a stardock, will allow me to research everything I could want and get them cheaper by building them via a factory, and takes far less space. The stardock, however, will allow me to purchase rooms and goods for much cheaper than even the factory would cost (although that depends on what merchants come through and if they don't get pulled aside by other managers) and doesn't take the tremendous amount of time that researching items will.

I usually go with the lab, and immediately start by researching upgrades for it to improve research times down the road while selling goods to Arona and occasionally buying something that seems to be pressing. It's a slow start, but it eventually pays off big. What other strategies do you all have?

Tritagonist

10-09-2012, 05:21 PM

There's combat in RCT3? I'll have to look at that again.
Or he'd rather have no combat than dull combat - which would be something I agree with.

Anyway, the (for me) surprising enthusiasm over this release has made me curious to see what it's all about.